AMAZING FEAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 December 1939, Page 5

AMAZING FEAT

WRECKED PLANE BROUGHT SAFELY HOME MASTERTON AND GISBORNE PILOTS SEQUEL TO RECENT RAID ON GERMANY. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, November 30. Two New Zealanders, a schoolmaster from Gisborne and a wool buyer from Masterton, were the heroes of an amazing feat of airmanship after the raid on northwest Germany on November 27. What they described as a blinding yellow flash and a “big bang” occurred when they were flying at 2000 ft. and they thought they were being attacked by a fighter. Their aircraft went round and round in uncontrollable circles, dropping at an alarming rate. A fall into the sea seemed inevitable. The pilots prepared to launch their dinghy but saw that only the framework remained. The top port wing and half the fabric of the starboard wing were gone. The pilot’s right arm was temporarily paralysed after they landed safely at their home base owing to the effort of controlling the machine. “Instinct and self-preservation pulled us through,” he said. “Anyhow I would have been a nitwit to let her fall into the sea after pulling her out of that drop through space.” It is thought that the Masterton wool buyer referred to in the above message is Flying-Officer Frank H. Long, son of Mr and Mrs H. Long, of Church Street, Masterton, who was engaged in wool buying before he left for England some time ago to join the Royal Air Force. Flying-Officer Long is an old boy of the Wairarapa High School.